knightrrider.wordpress.com

Tag Archives: captured shadows

Post navigation

Payhip, where I sell my e-books, has added a shopping cart so you no longer have to go in and out of separate pages to buy multiple books, and I’m going to see my favourite band tonight. So to mark both of these things, and because I’m feeling randomly generous and in love with the world today, all e-books are £1 for today only.

Sorry for the silence lately! RL/day job getting in the way of the fun stuff, as always. Plus I think I must have been linked on some kind of busy forum/website/Tumblr/whatever because the volume of emails I’ve been getting lately is staggering, I mean to the point that even if I did nothing but reply to them for days on end I wouldn’t get through them. So hopefully if you’ve emailed me and not had a reply you’ll see this: I truly am sorry, it’s just been a total avalanche! I’m writing an FAQ page which should hopefully address most of the questions people have been asking, and I’ll do my best to reply personally to whatever doesn’t get covered there.

The main thing seems to be “get your shit together and re-release the Stockholm Syndrome books” (understandably, since I keep sailing past my own deadlines) so I’m happy to announce that EBOOKS WILL BE AVAILABLE TO PURCHASE AGAIN TOMORROW. Because it’s Valentine’s Day, and I can’t resist that link. Paperbacks will follow very shortly, I’m just looking at some alternative options to Lulu and the possibility of a small print run rather than print on demand, which should lower the price a bit. I totally recommend the paperbacks over the e-books, by the way – less profit for me, but who cares? The new covers, by designer Rosamund Berdann, are beautiful and deserve to be real solid things you can hold in your hands – but obviously they’re all going to be available in EPUB, MOBI and PDF formats as well for convenience.

Follow me on Twitter @Knightrrrider for release updates (fair warning: all I really do is wail about McFly and have bum bants with John because we’re 12), or check back on my e-books page tomorrow for purchase links.

The reason it’s taken forever and a day to get these things ready is that every time I thought I was done I totally changed my mind and had to start over. I pretty much know these stories by heart now, I’ve been staring at them for so long. I honestly intended to edit down the length, especially of the first one, and try to get a better balance of plot/interminable sex scenes, but even when I ended up with (undoubtedly) a better, tighter story it just didn’t feel the same. It was a story, it wasn’t their story, or mine. So I suppose this is another fair warning: if you’ve been waiting for half the book to be cut away, I’m afraid that hasn’t happened. (I’ve cut out a few chapters, but then I’ve added some of the short stories into the main books as well so… oops?) I’ve just kind of got used to the fact that this rambling messed-up story is never going to please everyone, but the people who do like it are really really into it exactly as it is, and that sort of feels more important. I’m thrilled there’s still so much love for it six years after I wrote it, and that people are finding it even now. Thank you for the endless cheerleading, and the endless patience!

Also please read Captured Shadows because that’s actually a good story and it’s very short and nobody wants to know :P I’m going to make the e-books free for today and tomorrow only: get it here.

Captured Shadows is available now on Kindle and Kobo! I’m not seeing it yet on iBooks but it should be up there sometime soon.

I’ve been drowning in emails and messages lately (hello again, One Direction fandom) so please hang on a bit longer if you’re waiting on a reply – tomorrow is my dedicated email day. I promise I’m not ignoring anyone, I’m just struggling a bit with the volume…! In the meantime I’ll say a few quick things to cover most of what’s being asked:

1) I’ve been sending the old Stockholm Syndrome files to people who asked for them since it’s been taking me so long to get the editing finished, but we’re so close to the books’ re-release (December!) that I’d rather you hang on a few weeks more and get the improved versions. Less meandering endless porn. Ymmv on whether this approach is an improvement, I don’t know! They certainly work better as stories.

2) Stockholm Syndrome was published in 2009 and (other than a few mentions of McFly because they are my life blood and barge themselves uninvited into everything I say or do ever) have nothing to do with any boyband – although of course I’m pleased people are still finding and enjoying the stories so many years after they were written, even if it’s from somewhere unexpected. Welcome to everyone who’s been lovely about this thing; two middle fingers up to the wankers with the weird threats.

3) No, I am not Harry Styles. Never thought that would be a question I’d need a FAQ for…

Why are we talking so much about Stockholm Syndrome? Go and read Captured Shadows, it’s brilliant!

Jim Sinnett spends his days on respectable portrait photography and his nights creating scandalous erotic pictures for men who hide their desires in locked cabinets and between the pages of books. When a new friendship leads to a secret opportunity, one more dangerous than ever before, Jim agrees to step in front of the camera but finds himself baring much more than his skin.

A twisting historical romance set in the fog of Victorian London, Captured Shadows follows the path of love, blackmail and obsession to a devastating climax.

WOW I kind of fell off the world for a while there. Life’s been getting in the way of itself a bit. I moved house! I turned thirty! I saw McFly and nearly pissed myself with delight! Lots of less-excellent things as well but they’re boring so let’s not bother talking about them.

I suppose most importantly I finally got Captured Shadows in a state worth showing off, after a year and a half of flailing and deleting twice as much as I kept. It’s so different to anything I’ve written before, I honestly have no idea what people are going to think of it, so… bit terrified, but very excited. I’m proud of it. Just some final editing to do, then I’ll come back with a concrete release date.

After all that flapping around and deleting half the book, I’m finally nearing the end of a Captured Shadows draft I’m happy(ish) with – five outlined chapters left to write, but I think it’s going to end up more. Then I’m going to close the file and leave it alone for a month. I’m at the point now where I’ve worked so much on it in such a short space of time to make up everything I scrapped that I’m dreaming about it and everything. I feel too close to it to do a decent job of editing, like I’ve lost all concept of what’s good drama and what’s the awful daytime soap sort of drama. I have this horrible feeling I’ll come back to it after that month off, re-read the first paragraph, and quietly decide to disappear and never write again.

Also not really sure how to warn people that if they’re after something clean and pleasant, this is not the book to read…! There’s blood and shit and bad Victorian teeth and nobody bathes that often. I say bum quite a lot (very underused in rudey books since the 19th century if you ask me). Girls with furry legs and corset scars. Disgusting old quasi-incestuous pederasts. There’s romance too, of course, and if people are half as into Jim and Archie as they have been with Lindsay and Pip then I’ll be happy. It’s just a verrry different setting to Stockholm Syndrome, and even after glossing over a lot of the grimness it’s still pretty grim at times. I don’t want people coming into this expecting some kind of flawless swoony Mills & Boon historical romance starring identikit Hollywood hunks, because it’s not happening :P